Fifty Notable Years / Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century; with Biographical Sketches

by John G. Adams

Mr. Haven was an earnest and effective preacher. He was not especially noted for learning or eloquence, but was a plain, vigorous, and scriptural advocate of the Gospel. His preaching was a continuous stream of truth flowing forth in a strong and fervent delivery from the beginning to the close of his discourse. He possessed excellent judgment, sterling integrity, an amiable and Christian spirit, and unostentatious piety. He won and secured the respect of all men by his kindness of heart, his gentlemanly manners, and pure life. He made Universalism respected wherever he was known. Congregational ministers even called him evangelical. He left an honored name to his children and to the church which he had faithfully served for fifty years. He was uncle of the late Bishop Gilbert Haven of the M. E. Church.

The ministry of Rev. John Boyden was one of the most useful and honored of any in our churches. He was born in Sturbridge, Mass., May 14, 1809, and died in Woonsocket, R. I., Sept. 28, 1869. He attended the public schools in his native town during his youth, and engaged in teaching schools winters before he reached his twentieth year. In 1829 he resolved to enter upon the calling to which he had for some time felt drawn, and began his studies for the Christian ministry under the direction of the elder Rev. Hosea Ballou. His first sermon was preached in Annisquam, near Gloucester, Mass. In the following year (1830), he was ordained at Berlin, Conn. It was his first settlement, and he remained there four years. He next located at Dudley, Mass., where he continued as pastor until 1840, when he removed to Woonsocket, where he had before preached occasionally, and became the first pastor of the new society in that place, which had just erected a church. His pastorate here reached nearly the limit of thirty years.

As a preacher, he was plain, sound, and forcible. He never attempted great things in the way of sensational effort. He had too much good sense, and too refined notions of propriety to do that. His eloquence was in the sincerity, truthfulness, and earnestness of his statements and appeals. He was a clear and strong reasoner, and had always good illustrations of his subject at hand. Incidents from his own experience were often made most timely and impressive in his discourses. He was pointedly doctrinal and thoroughly practical in his sermons, generally using great simplicity and plainness of speech, but always giving evidence of a deep heart interest in the message he was delivering.

As a minister of Christian consolation he seemed pre-eminent. In this respect no preacher perhaps was more acceptable to our people. His calls to attend funerals, sometimes at long distances out of his own parish, were many. Old friends, who had long known him, when bereaved and afflicted were thankful to hear his voice speaking to them the comforting words of divine truth.

He was a true Christian reformer. All through his ministry this had been his character. Clear in his perceptions, sound in his judgments, consistent in his positions, and with an adamantine firmness in his adherence to principle, he was always ready to give his word and influence in aid of the reforms of the times. As an advocate of temperance and human freedom, he was surpassed by none in his faithfulness.

How his own people loved him! and how long and closely and happily were they united! That silver wedding celebration of the pastoral union in 1864; what evidence it gave of that unity of the spirit which can bind a good pastor and an appreciative people for so long a time with interest deepening as years increase, and which is such a reproof of the many injudicious calls and frequent resignations which afflict too many churches! What a golden halo is set around this long settlement of the faithful pastor and his loving people.

John Moore.

Rev. John Moore was another of the worthy and beloved of this ministerial company. He was born in Strafford, Vt., Feb. 5, 1797, and was early nurtured in the Puritanic theology of New England. Soon after he had passed out of his teens he became acquainted with the faith of the Universalist church. It answered to the true call of the manliness that was in him, and soon became an inspiration to his spiritual powers. He grew in its light, and his soul expanded in its genial atmosphere. Reading, meditation, and the culture of his mental powers soon opened the way for him into the ministry, the work of which he entered upon with hesitancy, not from lack of zeal in its interest, but from modesty as to his qualifications for the great calling. The counsellings of friends encouraged him, and his first messages were received with favor, and he became one of the most acceptable ministers and missionaries in Northern New England. Of noble personal appearance and gentlemanly demeanor, full of plainness and common sense in his discoursing, a clear expositor to the inquirer after Christian truth, and a son of consolation to those who sought its hopes in their sorrows, he was welcome wherever he appeared as a representative of our faith. His pastorates, nine in number (viz. in Lebanon, N. H.; Danvers, Lynn, and Lowell, Mass.; Hartford, Conn.; Troy, N. Y.; Strafford, Vt.; and Concord, N. H.), all gave evidence of his fidelity. As a moral reformer, he stood well without the church as well as in it, and as a man he was esteemed and loved wherever known. Even the politicians conferred upon him the nomination for the gubernatorial chair of New Hampshire; not so much because of his service to them as a partisan, as from the fact of the excellences in him that were above all mere party considerations, and which gave them the assurance that his honest and sturdy manliness would prove an honor in any position he might be called to fill. It afterwards appearing that his residence in the State had not been quite long enough to render him eligible to the office, another nomination was necessarily made. His death was sudden. He fell, of heart disease, near his home in the city where he had his last pastorate, lamented wherever his name and ministry were known. A public journal wrote of him, after his departure, "As a man, he was the very one that Diogenes with his lamp was looking for."